Former leading New Zealand publisher and bookseller, and widely experienced judge of both the Commonwealth Writers Prize and the Montana New Zealand Book Awards, talks about what he is currently reading, what impresses him and what doesn't, along with chat about the international English language book scene, and links to sites of interest to booklovers.

Saturday, February 25, 2017

Latest news from The Bookseller

A record breaking number of submissions has led to the highest
ever number of regional shortlisted bookshops at the British Book Awards’
Independent Bookshop of the Year category, sponsored by Gardners Books.

The Booksellers Association (BA) this week warned Treasury
chief secretary David Gauke that planned increases to business rates bills
this April will result in many booksellers’ businesses being
“absolutely crippled”.

Former Little, Brown chief executive Ursula Mackenzie, Front
Row’s Samira Ahmed, television presenter June Sarpong and past
Publishers Association c.e.o. Simon Juden are among the judges for the
British Book Awards 2017.

Pearson has reported a massive statutory loss for the
year of £2.6bn, including a goodwill impairment, following
the challenges it has been facing in the US education market. The
company, which in January delivered its fifth profit warning in four years,
also reported a sharp rise in debt to £1,092m (2015: £654m).

The government is expanding the Public Lending Right
(PLR) to include e-books and e-audiobooks, meaning their authors
will be eligible for payment in the same way as those whose
physical books are borrowed from libraries.

The UK's public libraries are missing 25 million books,
according to new figures from libraries body CIPFA, although the decline in
books could be worse than the figures indicate due to discrepancies between
computer audits and physical stock takes.

Philip Roth, Zadie Smith, J M Coetzee and Anne Tyler are among
65 leading writers joining with PEN America in an open letter to
President Donald Trump, urging him to reconsider his travel ban
against visitors from seven Muslim-majority countries.